Tag: Obama

This anecdotal article demonstrates not only the failure of socialized health care in Sweden, but also how its enormous price tag devastates the economies of average Swedes.

I’m a Texan who has been living in Sweden for 15 years. When I first moved here–before 9-11, before my awakening, I was a neocon. I spent a lot of time debating people, in real life and on the Internet, about the pitfalls of socialism and socialized medicine. It was my hobby, and I was good at it. I mention this because I know from experience what it’s really like over here. When Obama makes his sales pitch about how great health care works over here, I know he’s wrong- dead wrong.

Case in point: Meet Björn Hansen. Björn is 50 years old and has paid taxes like a dutiful Swede his entire career. So how much does that amount to? A recent report by one of Sweden’s largest banks shows that the government takes 68% of the average Swede’s income every month. Of course, if you make more than average, the government takes even more. In exchange for being 68% tax slave, Swede’s are promised “free” health care.

A simple search reveals that Björn earns more money than 77.72% of his fellow citizens.

Wow, he must be pretty well off in the top 25% wage bracket! Actually no. Although I can’t determine Mr Hansen’s exact income, I do know someone who earns about 50K USD (before taxes), which is more than 86.71% of all Swedes. This is the cost of “free” health care and all the other empty promises of the welfare state: mediocre wages for everyone.

Björn has been suffering from a large herniated varicose vein on his leg, which causes great pain, making it hard to work as a pipe-layer and hard to sleep at night. But that’s no problem for socialized health care in Sweden, right? Wrong. When he went to the local hospital for help, he was denied care. The doctor claimed that his case wasn’t severe enough to treat, so he would have to pay for it out-of-pocket at a private clinic. However, in spite of earning more than 77% of all Swedes, Björn can’t afford the operation, which would cost 23,000 SEK ($3,547).

So after decades of tax slavery, Björn Hansen is denied the benefits he has been promised his entire life, and because of his extreme tax burden, he is unable to afford a private alternative.

We are bombarded by a constant stream of propaganda and talking points every day. They are taught in the schools, repeated in all media, and parroted by the masses. You can’t even enjoy a sitcom on TV without being re-educated by government-approved talking points. You probably argue against these points (fallacies, lies, myths) frequently, and if you’re like me, you’ve found that over the years, there are some misconceptions that come up over and over. For example, how many times have you heard someone blame something on capitalism, when you know capitalism doesn’t even exist?

This post is a collection of facts that counter many common misconceptions that are repeated ad nauseum by the main-stream media (MSM) and the propaganda machine. I will update this list routinely.

Capitalism and free markets do not exist. The US does not practice capitalism, and there is no free market. 9 federal cabinet departments and over 100 federal agencies and commissions control the economy. The Federal Register alone contains over 81,000 pages of detailed government regulations. Over 40% of the national output is appropriated by the government. Interest rates are artificially manipulated by a secretive, private bank with a monopoly on fiat money. Banks and large corporations deemed “too big to fail” (TBTF) are given money to survive, at taxpayer expense, instead going bankrupt, so mismanaged companies are rewarded, while the hard-working are left to fend for themselves. Instead of offering better products and services, large corporations lobby the government to pass laws that hurt their competition. There is absolutely nothing free or capitalistic about it.

The Federal Reserve Bank is not federal. The Federal Reserve Bank, also known as the Fed, is not a government institution. In fact, it is a private corporation which the government has given monopoly powers to create money as debt. The Federal Reserve’s shareholders are private banks. 100% of its shareholders are private banks. None of its stock is owned by the government. The Fed pretends it is accountable to Congress, but decisions made by the Fed do not have to be ratified by the president or anyone else in the executive or legislative branch of government.

Inflation statistics do not include food and energy prices. Whenever you hear the MSM talk about inflation, they’re almost always referring to the core CPI which does not include food and energy prices. This gives the misleading impression that inflation is lower than it actually is. Even the core numbers are manipulated lower using techniques of hedonics and substitution. You should also be aware that the government using the fake inflation numbers to determine social security payments, so lower inflation means the government pays out less to SS.

War is not good for the economy and it did not end the Great Depression. War is the ultimate example of the broken-window fallacy.

The dollar is not backed by gold. Believe it or not, there are still a lot of people who think the dollar is backed by something. In fact, it’s backed by nothing. The dollar is money because the government says so. This is what we call fiat money. The dollar has not been backed by gold since President Nixon closed the gold window on 1971.

Inflation is not good; not even a little. How many times have you heard the talking heads say a little inflation is good? Inflation is not good. What is good about having your money disappear little by little? Inflation is theft. It’s a hidden tax. When governments print more money, they decrease your purchasing power, which is the same as stealing your money. The only difference is that most people don’t notice it too much, unless inflation is really high. Some argue that inflation is necessary for the money supply to grow, so there is enough money for everyone. That’s a lie too. Prices change all the time, and they can go down (preserving your savings) just as easily as they can go up (destroying your savings).

Every federal income tax dollar you pay goes to the Federal Reserve. The Federal government borrows its entire budget from the Fed and uses you as collateral to pay back the loan. We are all tax slaves.

There is no freedom of speech. Permits are required to protest and speak publicly, and Washington DC has “free speech” zones. In fact, the entire Constitution is largely ignored, unless you want to abort a baby. Apparently abortion is protected by the 14th Amendment because Democrats want to prevent 50% of blacks from being born.

Lincoln started the civil war. It’s almost mainstream now, that the civil war was not about slavery, but they still won’t tell you that President Lincoln was a racist tyrant who forced the South into war. If it’s not ironic enough that the “great emancipator” enslaved the entire South, who wanted to leave the union peacefully, here’s what Lincoln had to say about black people:

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Bill Clinton did not reduce the deficit, and he didn’t balance the budget either. Firstly, people need to understand the difference between the deficit and the annual budget. You can make more than you spend in one year, but that doesn’t mean that you paid off all the debt you owed. But Clinton didn’t balance the budget or pay off the deficit. You can check the numbers yourself at the treasury.

Fiscal
Year

Year
Ending

National Debt

Deficit

FY1993

09/30/1993

$4.411488 trillion

FY1994

09/30/1994

$4.692749 trillion

$281.26 billion

FY1995

09/29/1995

$4.973982 trillion

$281.23 billion

FY1996

09/30/1996

$5.224810 trillion

$250.83 billion

FY1997

09/30/1997

$5.413146 trillion

$188.34 billion

FY1998

09/30/1998

$5.526193 trillion

$113.05 billion

FY1999

09/30/1999

$5.656270 trillion

$130.08 billion

FY2000

09/29/2000

$5.674178 trillion

$17.91 billion

FY2001

09/28/2001

$5.807463 trillion

$133.29 billion

So how do politicians appear to balance the budget? They promise spend less in the future as a percentage of GDP. They don’t actually cut anything; they just promise to spend less in the future. Of course they break that promise and we don’t make the GDP targets either. This is the same technique Obama used during the last debt-ceiling crisis. The government promised to reduce X-hundred billion a year over the next 10 years, based on 6% GDP growth every year. Everyone cheered, the debt continued to pile up, and nothing changed.

Gun control does not prevent violent crime. Note Norway in the chart below. Norway had a massacre in in 2011, which claimed 77 lives, in spite of strict gun control.

Health care in America was socialized long before Obamacare. America spends more federal tax dollars per capita on health care than Europe, and that money comes with strings attached- strings called regulation and control. Health care is the most heavily regulated industry in the US. In fact, only 10% of US hospitals are private, whereas the other 90% are controlled by the government. Compare to 60 years ago, when the opposite was true- 90% were private and 10% were federal. Back then, health care was affordable, and you only needed insurance for extreme cases. Now you need insurance to get your foot in the door. How can this be? Because of wage controls implemented by the government in the early 40s, it became standard operating procedure for businesses to offer health insurance as a perk. So insurance became the norm and grew into the monster it is today.

Free healthcare is not free, and it’s not universal either. Canadians, Europeans, et al. pay excessive taxes to receive mediocre health care. For example, 70% of the average Swede’s income goes to taxes. How can you claim something is free when 70% of your income is used to pay for it? They can also be denied treatment for any number of reasons, so it’s not universal. In some areas of Sweden, patients go to the vet for x-rays because the wait at the hospital is too long. You can also question why 80% of Swedes have private health insurance in addition to their “free” health care. By the way, how much of your labor has to be taxed before you are considered a slave? Apparently Swedes accept 70% slavery.

Obamacare was written behind closed doors by insurance corporations. Obamacare, a.k.a The Affordable Health Care Act, was branded as low-cost health care for everyone and free health care for the poor, but in reality, it only forces people to buy health insurance, and health care costs have continued to rise since its enactment.
As of March 19, 2013, healthcare premiums have risen 39%-56% after Obamacare became law.

Using paper is good for the environment. An order for more paper is an order for more trees to be planted. Trees absorb the most CO2 in the beginning of their lives when they grow the most.

The Department of Education is a useless waste of money. If you’ve ever say that in public, many people will think you hate children and are anti-education. But most people don’t realize that the DOE is an unnecessary federal bureaucracy sitting on top of already existing state bureaucracies. Each state is perfectly capable of managing its own public education without the DOE draining its resources. Furthermore, the quality and results of public education have deteriorated greatly since the inception of the DOE, so what exactly are we paying them for?

The EPA does not protect you or the environment. It is a tool that corporations use to lobby against competitors and the government uses to control you. Don’t believe me? After the Fukushima meltdown (which is still spewing radiation 2 years later), the EPA raised safety levels for nuclear radiation in drinking water and soil. Drinking water safety levels, for example, include:

A nearly 1000-fold increase in strontium-90

A 3000 to 100,000-fold increase for iodine-131

An almost 25,000 rise for nickel-63

In the weeks immediately after the Fukushima disaster, the EPA announced that there was nothing to fear because iodine isotopes have a half-life of 8 days. The EPA conveniently forget to mention the other isotopes in use in the mox plutonium at Fukushima, which have half-lifes up to 2.14 million years. Is this the behavior you expect from an organization that is supposed to protect the environment? The EPA should’ve been lobbying the world from day one to get Fukushima under control. Instead, however, Obama went on tour in the US promoting new nuclear power construction, which would be built by Tepco, the same corporation that built Fukushima.